Flight attendants through the ages

Joan Waltermire, an American Airlines flight attendant, pictured in 1941. She was profiled for Life magazine that year. It wrote: "Airlines have stewardesses not so much to serve meals or hand out chewing gum as to make passengers happy. The stewardess is the airlines' only intimate ambassador and American, which spends more than $400,000 a year on its stewardesses, finds the outlay justified. Last year about 3,500 girls asked American for stewardess jobs. Only 1,500 met the basic requirements of age (21-26), height (5ft2in-5ft6in) weight (100-125lb), training, good looks, pleasant personality. Only 105 of these were taken on."